iwwr

90 ms·

811.
by iwwr 15y ago
There are some expenses you can't live without like food, rent, clothes etc. Holding cash in a deflationary (and non fractional-reserve) currency may be the equivalent of a savings account in a bank. But hey, if people really did decide to
812.
by iwwr 15y ago
One economist's 'hoarding' is another's 'capital accumulation'. Note that in order to accrue any form of money, some valuable things must be provided in return (assuming voluntary exchange). So while the hoarder may have pleasure from ownin
813.
by iwwr 15y ago
You can have several competing specifications, recognizing the old BTC balance and offering a new balance in a new spec. People (who can be) separate from the spec proposers may implement clients that connect both to the Bitcoin network and
814.
by iwwr 15y ago
OK, that was an aspect I was unfamiliar with. So after the mining phase ends, transactions become zero-sum BTC games, where the biggest 'miners' accrue their proportional share of the total fees of transactions validated.
815.
by iwwr 15y ago
Maybe because CPUs are no longer competitive. A Bitcoin miner is essentially cracking a SHA256 hash (with zeros added for difficulty control). GPUs are 20-50 times more efficient power-wise than CPUs at this task. Interestingly, the AMD arc
816.
by iwwr 15y ago
Bribery is also something of a safety valve. When the state stands in the way of (otherwise peaceful and voluntary) exchange, paying a bribe may be a better outcome than not having these productive activities happen (indirectly as well, the
817.
by iwwr 15y ago
The way the system is set up is that, overwhelmingly, it was (still is?) impossible to run a private business in large compliance with the law. The alternative to non-compliance is death (businesswise). The aggressor here is the state and n
818.
by iwwr 15y ago
"A crisis is an opportunity, what's my opportunity?"
819.
by iwwr 15y ago
Arab numerals, negative numbers, basic statistics, understanding interest rates and compounding (for mortgages), basic accounting. These are skills common people can no longer do without.
820.
by iwwr 15y ago
The contrast to imperative programming is not FP, but rather declarative programming. The idea of referential transparency comes from DP, not FP. Example: Prolog, a declarative language with many of the qualities of FP, yet not FP.
821.
by iwwr 15y ago
I just imagined that the bitcoin world post-mining (after or near the 21M BTC is reached) would just consist of the transactional interfaces and not need the specialized GPU miners.
822.
by iwwr 15y ago
I wonder why law firms don't just sell ready-made and digitally signed boiler plate like that.
823.
by iwwr 15y ago
It would only be extended with new transactions, not blocks. Computational resources will be devoted to verification rather than brute-forcing hashes (a much less computationally intensive matter).
824.
by iwwr 15y ago
Printing money has in itself a cost in shifting resources from the market to the government or the central banks (or the financial sector in general).
825.
by iwwr 15y ago
That's actually quite interesting, thank you for posting. So at a guess, the network is doing now around 7MW of electrical power, although there is room for a lot of efficiency improvement.
826.
by iwwr 15y ago
Alternatively, maintaining a hard limit on the number of BTC saves resources, compared to a system that allowed for a fixed growth. Once the 'mining' stage ends, no new computational resources are invested. The system accumulates a kind of
827.
Amateur video hacker makes full feature film (Clear Skies 3) (machinima)(clearskiesthemovie.com)
3 points by iwwr 15y ago|0 comments
828.
by iwwr 15y ago
Well, there are people buying fake Gucci bags, knowing what they are. The consumer is not deceived, although the trademark is broken.
829.
by iwwr 15y ago
Perhaps the same reason neutrons bound in atoms don't decay.
830.
by iwwr 15y ago
What would happen if an asteroid (say 30km) impacted a neutron star? Mind you, that rock would be larger, although much less massive. Is it possible for something like that to blast off material from the star? I imagine something like a bla
831.
by iwwr 15y ago
I can see a bunch of toy companies salivating, but how will it improve the public good? Unfortunately, IP companies are devising ever draconian laws that impact liberties, legal due process and privacy. IP companies have made themselves i
832.
by iwwr 15y ago
Not a new concept, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-in-pot_refrigerator and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator
833.
by iwwr 15y ago
Just one caveat that the clusterfuck in the mortgage market is not a product of 'capitalism', but rather perverse state incentives.
834.
by iwwr 15y ago
He may not necessarily say that owning former state assets is good or evil, but that the perception of entrepreneurs has been tainted by the mafia that took over right after the Soviet collapse. So, stories like these don't evoke the empath
835.
by iwwr 15y ago
Well, if the case hangs around for years, so does the uncertainty about Android's IP bona fide. What happens to the ecosystem if Oracle wins 5 years later? It's the judicial equivalent of FUD.
836.
by iwwr 15y ago
The picture should be just as bright for a 3d projection. Unfortunately, that means a more expensive light source (or two separate ones). The decision to simply use an old lamp at half intensity may have made immediate cost-cutting sense, b
837.
by iwwr 15y ago
Judging from precedent, such lavish ceremonies are reserved for dictators-in-waiting. Do you remember the Putin inauguration? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uz-wLPEz6I
838.
by iwwr 15y ago
In many instances, it's the cost of doing business or securing an otherwise legitimate service. Of course, there are those paying bribes to trip up the competition or to secure protection from obvious crimes (like theft, murder etc). But fo
839.
by iwwr 15y ago
"Temporary"? 100 years is far from temporary.
840.
by iwwr 15y ago
You can also use water for a quiet(er) PC rather than strictly an overclocked one. It's not that expensive nor labor-intensive to convert a regular system to a watercooled one.

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